Police: Man stabs roommate, tells detectives, 'I just snapped'

By Kevin Lewis
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GERMANTOWN, Md. (WJLA) - A man, accused of drunkenly attacking his roommate, reportedly told officers, "I only stabbed him with a knife."

Around 11 p.m. last Monday, Montgomery County Police were called to an apartment in the 18500 block of Split Rock Lane in Germantown. Officers arrived to find Robert Fink, 61, standing calmly in his pajamas in the unit's entryway. Fink's roommate, Patrick Shansey was located nearby, wearing a "blood soaked shirt" with two deeply penetrating stab wounds underneath.

"He [Fink] just out of nowhere turned around and came at me with two knives. He had a butcher's knife in one hand and a Ginsu knife in the other," Shansey recalled.

Shansey, who suffers from Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, a chronic pain condition, was taken to Suburban Hospital in critical condition. There, doctors performed emergency surgery to repair a pierced lung and nicked bowels.

"He took this direction and stabbed me in the shoulder, and then stabbed me in the stomach," Shansey said while acting-out the incident. "He put the blade in all the way. It's pretty disgusting to hear your own bone being scratched with a knife. It was pretty hellish really."

Instead of running from the crime scene, Shansey tells ABC7, Fink picked-up the kitchen telephone and proceeded to chat with 911 operators about the bloody attack.

"For units en route to Split Rock Lane, be advised the assailant is intoxicated. The call taker can hear him in the background." Montgomery County 911 dispatchers told responding officers.

According to charging documents filed in Montgomery County District Court, after being placed in handcuffs, Fink candidly confided in police, saying:

“I just snapped. I was trying to kill Patrick by stabbing him in the neck... He pushes me around. The knife I stabbed him with is in the kitchen.”

However, Shansey tells ABC7 there was no bullying, instead he'd simply ordered Fink to go to bed, since his 6'4" 180 lb. roommate was terribly inebriated.

"He's been trying to provoke me anyway he can for years, spitting in my face, stealing my stuff so he can buy his beer. He saw an opportunity to kill, and he took it," Shansey added.

While the actual knives, each measuring six to seven inches long, are currently in a Montgomery County Police Department evidence room, similar blades remain in the kitchen where the melee began.

"I've got three scars. I've got one to the stomach, one to the shoulder and another one where the doctor probed me... I can't really consider him [Fink] crazy, he's just mean," Shansey concluded.

The Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office has charged Fink with Attempted 2nd Degree Murder, 1st and 2nd Degree Assault and Reckless Endangerment. If found guilty, a judge could sentence the 61-year-old to 70 years in prison.